Hundreds Of People Trapped In The Ruins Of Old Buildings In West India

Lustrasi (Unsplash / Jared Brashier)

JAKARTA - The collapse of a five-story building in the West Indian Industrial City trapped hundreds of people inside. This was stated by a member of the local parliament, Bharatshet Maruti Gogawale on Monday, August 24.

According to Gogawale's statement, of the 200 or so building occupants in Mahad, 100-125 people were in the building. Therefore, when the building collapses at night, those inside the building are automatically trapped by the debris.

"I believe around 100-125 people must have been inside when it collapsed," Gogawale, who was present at the site, told Reuters. Even so, the authorities have not been able to determine the cause of the collapse of the building and the number of casualties.

However, about 30 people have been rescued by the pinning team and local residents. Then, the process of evacuating victims from the building which has 47 flats is still being attempted to this day.

# महाडइमारतदुर्घटना #Mahad_building_collapse updatesTeams of NDRF reached incident site at 0110 hrs. Search and Rescue operation ongoing. @ Ndmaindia @MahaDGIPR @CollectorRaigad @RaigadPolice @InfoRaigad pic.twitter.com/QJQMvEeyX1 https://t.co/mQbrbTFadx

- Abhijeet Patil (@abhijeetpTOI) August 25, 2020

Due to this incident, panic hit the residents around the collapse of the building. The tense atmosphere was caught on a local television channel showing footage of the debris in which people were trapped. It was also through the recording that an ambulance was seen going back and forth in the area.

The chief minister of the Maharashtra region, Uddhav Thackeray, tried to convince residents not to panic. This is because the local government has dispatched a team to rescue and send aid to the ruins site.

Three teams from India's National Disaster Response force were dispatched to carry out the rescue. Even so, the collapse of old buildings has become a chronic problem that occurs in many regions in India. What's more, according to data from the National Crime Records Bureau more than 1,200 people died in 1,161 cases of collapsed buildings across India in 2017.